Confidence up for consumers in region, metro areas

Published 7:37 pm, Thursday, July 11, 2013

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NEW YORK, NY - JULY 11: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the end of the trading day on July 11, 2013 in New York City. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at record high today, up 169.26 points to close at 15,460.92. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images) *** BESTPIX *** ORG XMIT: 168873378 less

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 11: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the end of the trading day on July 11, 2013 in New York City. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at record high today, ... more

Photo: Andrew Burton

Confidence up for consumers in region, metro areas

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Colonie

Consumers in the state's major metropolitan areas were feeling more confident in the second quarter, the latest Quarterly Consumer Sentiment survey from the Siena Research Institute found.

Both the Capital Region and Syracuse passed the break even point, with optimists more numerous than pessimists, although the other metros, with the exception of New York City, remained in the pessimist camp.

Why do economists care? Because they believe the confidence index is a strong indicator of consumers' willingness to spend, and that spending makes up more than two-thirds of the nation's overall economic activity.

In a separate report Thursday, retailers in June reported their strongest sales gains since January, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Revenue at stores open at least a year climbed 3.9 percent, the best since January's 4.5 percent increase.

Consumer confidence slipped among New York City residents, the Siena survey found, down 1.9 points to 80.5. While it was the only metro with overall decline, New York has the highest index of any metro in the state, and is above the break even point of 76. Second is Syracuse, where the index climbed 5.4 points to 77.0; followed by Albany, where it climbed 5.1 points to 76.8.

The overall index combines a current sentiment and future sentiment reading. The future sentiment index trails current sentiment by several points in every metro except New York.

"Consumers remain skeptical about the future as in nearly every area of the state, current confidence is higher than the future outlook," said Douglas Lonnstrom, the institute's founding director. He also said a survey on consumers' plans to make major expenditures strengthened, with plans to spend more outpacing plans to cut back by a two-to-one margin.